Groovin’ in 4/4 time…

It has been awhile since we caught up on my current adventures so gather around.
I turned 44 on Tuesday, hence, groovin’ in 4/4 time. It was a good birthday. I get really introspective around my birthday but it is always a good time to reflect. What do you get a music/photo/baking geek for his birthday? A new hard drive, of course. I am picking up a new 500GB external hard drive (remember when 20mb was all you needed!!!) to be used for backing up photos and other pursuits. Thanks for all the calls and well wishes. 🙂
I had the pleasure of meeting and taking a photo with disco/r&b sensation Linda Clifford after her performance on the Main Stage at SF Pride on Sunday. She looked and sounded wonderful. She performed her classics, “Runaway Love”, “Red Light” (from the movie “Fame”), and “If My Friends Could See Me.”
Guitarist Terrence Brewer is going into the studio this week to record his next album project. I am privileged to take photos of his recording session. I am very excited.
The Fillmore Jazz Festival is this weekend. I will be roaming the festival with my camera on Sunday. There will be lots of great music.
The Color Purple, the musicial, is coming to San Francisco in October. I took my mom to see the Chicago production earlier this month and it was excellent.
I will be taking “Telling Your Story Through Music with Marcus Shelby” at the Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco on July 23 and 30 from 6-9pm. Here is a description of the course: “Award-winning Jazz composer and educator Marcus Shelby will guide you through various approaches to creating scores for text, theater and film using examples from his own compositions and the scores of other jazz composers such as Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington.”
The Berkeley Jazz Festival is Saturday, July 28 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. This year’s lineup includes Randy Crawford, Joe Sample, Rachelle Ferrell, The Original All-Stars of Jazz Fusion, Brian Culbertson, and Najee.

Happy Birthday James! I’d be curious to hear about the Marcus Shelby class. He’s quite a musician, I bet that will be a great experience. I’ll be checking back to see if you’ve blogged about it. Do you ever photograph any Latin Jazz groups here in the Bay Area?